Question: When do you buy your summer clothes?

Late last week, we stumbled upon this little green sundress on Topshop.com. Now, granted, it's nothing particularly out of the ordinary, but it's a colour and cut we love, and so we instantly started to covet it. The problem? Well, it's a summer dress: not only is it 100% cotton, and probably not very warm, it has a cut-out detail at the back (which we could actually do without, to be honest), which adds to the "summery" feel. Sure, we could probably try to "winter" it up with boots, cardis and other warmer items, but we just know in our hearts that we'd not get any use out of it until the warmer weather arrives (if it ever does), and while we're sitting in the HQ with piles of snow outside the window, we have to admit that sundresses are the last thing we feel like buying.

This isn't the first time this has happened either: right now the stores are full of lovely summer dresses, open-toed sandals, pretty bikinis and little tops that we know we'd have to buy and then stash away for a few months before wearing them. The sensible thing to do, of course, would be to just wait, and buy them when we're more likely to wear them, but of course, as we've observed before, to do that is to run the risk of the coveted items selling out altogether – and we just KNOW that when the summer finally does arrive, the shops will be full of sale stock and the beginnings of the Autumn/Winter lines. Gah.

Our question to you today, then, is this: do you actually shop like this? Do you buy your summer clothes in February, and your winter ones in August, or do you prefer to buy your clothes when you're actually going to be able to wear them? Are you starting to stock up for summer, or are you still shopping for winter woolies?